Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Jul 19, 2023; 13(7): 461-477
Published online Jul 19, 2023. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v13.i7.461
Effects of cumulative COVID-19 cases on mental health: Evidence from multi-country survey
Shanaya Rathod, Saseendran Pallikadavath, Elizabeth Graves, Mohammad M Rahman, Ashlea Brooks, Pranay Rathod, Rachna Bhargava, Muhammad Irfan, Reham Aly, Haifa Mohammad Saleh Al Gahtani, Zahwa Salam, Steven Wai Ho Chau, Theone S E Paterson, Brianna Turner, Viktoria Gorbunova, Vitaly Klymchuk, Peter Phiri
Shanaya Rathod, Elizabeth Graves, Ashlea Brooks, Department of Research and Innovation, Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, Southampton SO30 3JB, United Kingdom
Saseendran Pallikadavath, Portsmouth-Brawijaya Centre for Global Health, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth PO1 2UP, United Kingdom
Mohammad M Rahman, Salford Business School, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT, United Kingdom
Pranay Rathod, Patient and Public Involvement, Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, Southampton SO30 3JB, United Kingdom
Rachna Bhargava, Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi 110029, India
Muhammad Irfan, Department of Mental Health, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Peshawar Medical College, Riphah International University, Islamabad 46000, Pakistan
Reham Aly, Department of Clinical Services, Ministry of Health, Cairo 4262114, Egypt
Haifa Mohammad Saleh Al Gahtani, College of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Arabian Gulf University, Bahrain 329, Bahrain
Zahwa Salam, Peshawar Dental College, Ripah International University, Islamabad 46000, Pakistan
Steven Wai Ho Chau, Department of Psychiatry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Theone S E Paterson, Brianna Turner, Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Victoria BC V8P 5C2, Canada
Viktoria Gorbunova, Department of Social Psychology, Zhytomyr State University, Zhytomyr 10002, Ukraine
Vitaly Klymchuk, National Psychological Association, Mental Health for Ukraine Project, European Federation of Psychologists' Association, GFA, Kyiv 04071, Ukraine
Peter Phiri, School of Psychology, Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Rathod S, Rathod P and Phiri P developed the study protocol and questionnaire; Rathod S, Phiri P, and Rahman MM contributed to the manuscript development; All authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by MRC Global Health Research Program, No. MR.N006267/1.
Institutional review board statement: The study received ethics and HRA approval. IRAS project ID: 282858; REC reference: 20/HRA/1934 from London-Westminster Research Ethics Committee on 27 April 2020. Each country followed their own ethics procedure.
Informed consent statement: All participants gave informed consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Professor Shanaya Rathod declares in the past 5 years to have received sponsorship for educational events and honoraria for lecture from Lundbeck, Janssen, Boehringer and Otsuka. She has been on advisory group for Boehringer. To have been CI for Otsuka Hummingbird study and CI and PI for Janssen TRD studies. No shareholdings in pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Phiri declares grants from NovoNordisk, paid lectures Queen Mary University of London, other from John Wiley & Sons, outside the submitted work. Visiting Academic University of Southampton. Professor Saseendran Pallikadavath, Dr Elizabeth Graves, Miss Ashlea Brooks, Mr Pranay Rathod, Rachna Bhargava, Muhammad Irfan, Reham Aly, Haifa Mohammed Saleh Al Gahtan, Zahwa Salam, Steven Wai Ho Chau, Theone S E Paterson, Brianna Turner, Viktoria Gorbunova, Vitaly Klymchuk declare no conflicts of interest or financial declarations.
Data sharing statement: The Correspondence author and first author will consider sharing anonymised datasets upon reasonable request after approval by the ethics committee.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Peter Phiri, BSc, PhD, Senior Research Fellow, School of Psychology, Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Southampton, University Road, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom. p.phiri@soton.ac.uk
Received: January 20, 2023
Peer-review started: January 20, 2023
First decision: February 21, 2023
Revised: February 27, 2023
Accepted: April 24, 2023
Article in press: April 24, 2023
Published online: July 19, 2023
Processing time: 179 Days and 4 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: This study explores the effect of cumulative coronavirus disease 2019 cases on mental health, more specifically on anxiety, depression, and trauma. Negative impact on mental health was found internationally, with individuals struggling to receive support from mental health services. Results also show that as the pandemic continued, mental health scores got worse.